(Be)Coming Together: Making Kin through Stories of Language and Literacy

Using Métissage as a Research Praxis

Authors

  • Chelsea Thomas University of Victoria
  • Nicki Benson University of Victoria
  • Meredith Lemon University of Victoria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29515

Abstract

Inspired by our attendance at the 16th Annual Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada (LLRC) Pre-Conference and their call to undertake ways in which race, decolonization, and unsettling research can shift the lens of traditional language and literacy approaches, we have come together to experiment with métissage (Hasebe-Ludt et. al, 2009) as a writing and research praxis. Using this “writing as inquiry” (Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005) methodological and theoretical approach, we embark upon our métissage of making kin. With research interests in the fields of Indigenous Language Revitalization (Benson), Ecojustice Education (Lemon), and Decolonial/Equitable Teacher Education and Schooling (Thomas), we weave together our micro-stories, provoked by the temporal questions: Where do we come from? Where are we right now? Where do we hope things will go?

Author Biographies

Chelsea Thomas, University of Victoria

Chelsea Thomas – Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg, Chelsea is a Canadian-Afro-Caribbean-Celtic mom of four unschoolers. She has an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Athabasca University and is a PhD candidate in Educational Studies and becoming-teacher-educator at the University of Victoria. Chelsea’s doctoral research will explore how educators can use their own stories of resistance to oppositional binary logics to create de/colonial projects that are invitational to everyone. Her advocacy work is connected to We Learn Naturally, paving the way for Self-Directed Education and improving the quality of adult-child relationships here in Canada. Chelsea also works as an Education and Curriculum Coordinator for The Living Lab Project, a university-community-schools partnership project and is the communications officer for the Canadian Association for the Study of Women and Education (CASWE).

Nicki Benson, University of Victoria

Nicki Benson – Nicki is of Jewish ancestry and grew up on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səl̓ilwətaɁɬ, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territories in Vancouver. She has an M.A. in Language Education from the University of British Columbia and is a PhD candidate in Indigenous Language Revitalization at the University of Victoria. She works as a research assistant with the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Indigenous Language Research Partnership and her doctoral research will explore success factors in adult immersion education for Indigenous language revitalization. Nicki is the founder of Esperanza Education, the facilitator of the Spanish for Social Justice Teacher Network, and the mamá of a bilingual three-year-old.

Meredith Lemon, University of Victoria

Meredith J. Lemon – Meredith was born in Toronto, Ontario on traditional Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Anishinabewaki territories. After receiving an MEd from the University of Washington, Meredith went on to get her BEd at Nipissing University where, on an international practicum she came face-to-face with present day colonial education. Currently, Meredith is a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria with Drs. Wanda Hurren and Jennifer Thom as supervisors. Her doctoral research employs an ecojustice education framework to inquire into the linguistic roots of the global sociological-ecological crisis that are present in the BC curriculum. She works as a teacher, a teacher educator, and an adult educator and is involved as a research assistant in a project on Indigenizing education.

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Published

2020-06-24 — Updated on 2021-02-22

How to Cite

Thomas, C. ., Benson, N., & Lemon, M. (2021). (Be)Coming Together: Making Kin through Stories of Language and Literacy: Using Métissage as a Research Praxis. Language and Literacy, 22(1), 39–58. https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29515

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2020): Race and Decolonization in Language and Literacies: Unsettling Research and Practices

Section

Articles

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